Post by ulyankee on May 12, 2006 20:48:49 GMT
Dear Pastors, Staff and Leaders,
It's a great privilege to co-labor with you to reach every nation in our generation. As our movement continues to grow, a major priority is to improve our communication with leaders like you. We want to make sure that you have accurate and timely information to assist you in the valuable role you play in this ministry.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this communication is to respond to several recent events and related concerns regarding our movement that have come to the attention of the leadership of Every Nation Churches and Ministries. Staff, church members, ministry partners, students and/or parents may have heard unsettling allegations concerning the ministry and we want to ensure that you are fully apprised so that you will be able to effectively answer any questions that may arise in your sphere of influence.
In particular, there have been a number of questions about the departures of two of our campus ministers in Los Angeles for unbiblical conduct, and the changes in Phil Bonasso's role in the LA local church and with Every Nation. To address these issues, it's first necessary to give you the background on the journey the founders and senior management of Every Nation have been taking for the past two and a half years to fundamentally restructure and improve our worldwide ministry.
BACKGROUND
During a series of special meetings held at the end of April 2003, Rice Broocks, Steve Murrell, Phil Bonasso, Jim Laffoon, Bert Thomson and Mark Foster met to discuss a number of management concerns and "growing pains" that Morning Star International was beginning to experience. Our very rapid and organic growth was starting to reveal weaknesses in the organization that needed to be addressed if we were to continue to grow and fulfill our God-given mandate in the Great Commission. On May 1, 2003, at the close of those discussions, the Board of Directors of Morning Star International officially commissioned Phil Bonasso and Mark Foster to develop a proposal to comprehensively restructure and reorganize Morning Star International.
At the ensuing international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2004, a plan was presented to the Board of Morning Star International in response to their previous directive. The following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the proposal:
Since its inception in 1994, Morning Star International (MS!) has rapidly grown from a small group of churches with campus outreaches to a worldwide family of thriving churches and specialized ministries. Guided by a clear set of core values and strong relationships, its founders have led the movement effectively for a decade through the many challenges a pioneering ministry must overcome.
Not only does MSI have established, functional core values, but also through the 2010 Initiative it has a clear roadmap to the fulfillment of its mission. The ministry is financially viable and has tremendous training resources and an effective engine for missions - the MPD program - that has been a success from its inception.
Today we stand at the threshold of another decade with an entirely different set of challenges. MSI's capability to be effective has been well established. The question now is how long can we continue to be effective given our present structure? That is, how can we best manage and stimulate growth and maintain our effectiveness for the long-term? To answer these questions, we must start to address the complementing issue of efficiency. Ultimately, both our long-term effectiveness and efficiency will be a function of how well we meet the challenge of becoming efficient in the years directly ahead.
Inefficiency has largely arisen from the ad hoc nature of the growth of MSI, which is typical of most startup organizations. Corporations, ministries and programs have arisen as a response to a variety of needs, to capitalize on opportunities, or as individual visions and burdens, but often without clear coordination, communication or strategic planning. Multiple mergers and adoptions have brought unique opportunities and challenges into the movement.
As a result, redundancies, gaps, and a lack of systematic integration of our corporate ministries and their identities and functions exist today. This produces confusion both internally and externally and makes the organization difficult to manage.
Two primary, interrelated areas will have long-term ramifications if not addressed presently. By applying MSI's strong and visionary leadership to these two areas, MSI can succeed in creating the systems and structures needed to manage and govern its anticipated growth in the generations to come. These are: (1) the organizational structure and systematic function of the movement and (2) the corresponding identity of the ministry in the marketplace.
As we look to the future, addressing these issues at this juncture is critical. The opportunity to capitalize on a decade of experience and optimize the inefficient areas in the organization before the next wave of growth present to us a God-given moment to establish patterns and foundations that will ensure success for the subsequent generations. Weare well on our way to the place where we are on the top of our game. Our challenge is to get there as intelligently and as quickly as possible and stay there.
The recommendations outlined in the proposal were:
1. To reorganize as two separate corporations: one to focus on serving the specific needs of churches, church leaders and members and the other to focus on serving the unique needs of evangelistic outreaches, training, missions and missionary staff.
2. To redefine the management roles of the founders and the executive management of these two new organizations in order to more effectively lead the ministry in the years ahead and to redefine and expand the boards and governance structures of the movement.
3. To rename the organization under the banner of Every Nation as Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. The purpose for this name change was three- fold:
a. To develop a strong and recognized name that embodies the spirit and mission of our movement.
b. To make it very clear which churches and ministries are part of the overall organization. (Through the years a plethora of names, ministries and organizations sprang up under the umbrella of the movement, and it was not clear to our internal membership, let alone the general public, that they were related.)
c. To remove the confusion between our ministry and another of a similar name with which Morning Star International was regularly confused.
4. To implement full financial disclosure of all of our missions, ministry and fundraising efforts and to ultimately receive accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
5. To improve and correct the management practices and processes that the organization had outgrown as a multinational entity.
RECENT ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
From that point forward, the founders together with management have not only been implementing that plan, but also improving and refining it. The primary challenge to us in this process has been that we have had to simultaneously manage this rapidly-growing movement while trying to restructure it at the same time. Consequently, a number of well-respected professionals from the Christian management community have been hired to assist us.
A) Financial Management and Compensation
On February 19, 2004, Phil Bonasso retained the services of Greg Capin and his firm, Capin Crouse LLP, an established and respected nonprofit accounting firm, to perform a comprehensive Compliance Audit of the entire organization. The charter was for Capin Crouse to determine any practices or weaknesses in our board, financial, compensation and/or management practices that needed to change so that our ministry would be fully compliant with IRS guidelines, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), generally accepted governance and management principles and to ultimately conform to the ECF A' s guidelines.
Management was instructed to communicate on the most detailed level with Capin Crouse concerning all of our operations and in particular to raise any areas of concern or weakness that they identified. The report was completed in September 30, 2004, which highlighted the following general issues that are typical for any rapidly-growing nonprofit organization like ours:
1. The fast growth of the organization had significantly outpaced the growth of the infrastructure and management systems and processes.
2. The organization had outgrown a startup "Founder Board," and this board needed to be expanded to include independent (uncompensated) individuals and to improve the governance process, including an independent compensation committee to set executive salaries.
3. More skilled and experienced staff were needed in the finance and accounting and human resources areas in order to manage the growing complexity of the organization and to maintain and develop internal controls in accordance with IRS guidelines and GAAP.
4. The organization also needed to improve the strategic planning and related budgeting processes for ministry operations.
5. The fragmented operations caused by staff being employees of multiple legal entities (e.g.
Every Nation Churches and various local churches near the offices) needed attention.
6. The ministry required an essential move towards greater accountability with its constituents and donors.
7. Finally, the intellectual property represented in the diverse training materials developed by
various authors within the organization had to be properly documented and managed.
As a result of the recommendations of that plan, Rick Myers, the CEO of Solomon Financial and a member of the Every Nation church in Phoenix, Arizona, was hired to be the CFO of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. His primary job was to help implement all the recommendations in the Capin Crouse report and to take over the financial operations of the two corporations. Jiji Concepcion, a member of Every Nation in the Philippines, was also hired as the Human Resources Director and has since been working to standardize all the compensation practices throughout the organization for both regular and executive staff.
To date, of the 82 recommendations in the report, 26 (32%) are complete, 35 (43%) are in process and 21 (25%) are incomplete or have not yet been started.
B) Communications and Name Change / Re-branding
In May 2004, the DeMoss Group was hired to help professionally re-brand the organization and to help us fix another significant weakness in the organization: inadequate internal and external communication processes.
In a series of meetings through the middle of 2004, a communications committee comprised of Steve Murrell, Lynn Nawata, Michael Swain, Bill Lloyd and Mark Foster, together with Mark DeMoss and members of his staff, discussed not only the renaming of the organization but also the growing communications needs and some of the negative criticisms that were coming from a small group of individuals on the Internet.
As mentioned, one of the weaknesses we recognized within our organization was in the area of communicating regularly about the work of our ministry. Up until that time, we had consciously chosen not to publicize the movement in order to not appear as self-promoting. However, we came to realize that we had inadvertently created a scenario wherein a small group of vocal critics on the Internet were erroneously framing who we are as a movement, what we are doing and our motives for doing it. At that time, because only a small group of individuals was involved on a few blog sites, we determined that moving forward with a long-term communications strategy and the reorganization would ultimately clarify and address any legitimate concerns about the organization.
With the upcoming World Conference in the summer of 2004, it was decided that even though the reorganization was incomplete and was still being refined, there was not a better moment to announce the name change to the movement. In hindsight, it would have been better to announce the reorganization in a more formal fashion, although a number of senior leaders were aware that this process was on-going, and they were involved at various levels in the development of the plan. Nonetheless, at the 2004 World Conference in Los Angeles, the new name for the movement was announced.
The rest of the year was spent developing and implementing a transition plan for the ministry partners and staff with respect to the name change and the restructuring of the ministry. At the end of 2004, the corporation Morning Star International, Inc. was officially renamed Every Nation Churches, Inc. At the same time, Victory Campus Ministries, Inc. was renamed Every Nation Ministries, Inc. and all missionary staff were moved into the Every Nation Ministries corporation.
C) Structural Reorganization
Although we were making significant internal changes, the final aspects of the reorganization were yet to be ratified particularly in the area of governance, the boards for these organizations and the future roles of the founders in the new organizational structure. In order to complete the project, alan Hendrix, CEO of Leadership Resource Group and the founding president of ECF A, was hired as an organizational consultant in December of 2004.
In January 2005, Steve Murrell, Phil Bonasso and Mark Foster met with Mr. Hendrix to review the progress to date, to discuss the necessary final changes to the structures of the new corporations and to learn about a nonprofit governance model known as Policy Governance®. Recommendations from this meeting were discussed with Rice Broocks at the January 2005 international leadership summit and, due to Steve Murrell's limited remaining time in the U.S. before returning to the Philippines, it was decided to hold a series of meetings during the summer of 2005 to finalize the reorganization and the overall restructuring of the movement.
During this period, a number of voices of concern within the movement were raised. These had to do with the departure of Paul Daniel and Greg Ball and the lack of clear communication with respect to them, frustration with the bottlenecking that was occurring in various areas of the ministry around the founders and their accessibility, concern over financial accountability and transparency, compensation practices and a number of other issues, all of which had already been previously recognized internally as weaknesses and were already being addressed in the restructuring.
In June 2005, the first of a series of summer reorganization meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, were held. During those discussions, our organizational consultant, alan Hendrix, educated the founders and a small group of senior managers on how good governance (and particularly Policy Governance® as a governance model1) was a critical component to the ultimate success of the reorganization and how it would improve all aspects of operations and management in the restructured entity.
During the following meetings held throughout the summer, various senior leaders were also brought into the discussions. Discussions topics included corporate structure, executive management, founders' roles and spiritual oversight structures for the movement, and initial policies (values and perspectives) were developed for the newly formed International Policy Council of Every Nation (see the following section for details). By the meeting during the week of August 15, 95% of the reorganization had been ratified with only a few items still in discussion. Nonetheless, the main components of the reorganization had been settled as described in the next section.
D) Overview of the Proposed New Structures
On the following page, Figure 1 diagrams the new spiritual oversight structure for the movement that resulted from the summer meetings. The International Policy Council's main charter is to communicate, in written form, the values and perspectives of this movement so that staff worldwide clearly understands them and as a result is empowered to minister in accordance with them.
Seven initial global regions were designated: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Middle East & India and the Pacific Islands. Each will contain teams of regional directors whose primary role will be to facilitate healthy local churches and ministry initiatives in those regions. The International Ministry Council is comprised of representatives from the seven regions and a number of "at-large" members whose role is to facilitate healthy local churches and ministry initiatives on an international level and to keep a pulse on the worldwide ministry. This body is replacing the former International Apostolic Team, although at the time of writing, the exact roles of this council, the regional team members and the appointment processes were still being finalized.
Also on the following page, Figure 2 diagrams the global corporate organizational structure that was finalized during the meetings. As a corporate model, Every Nation corporate entities will have local boards of directors who, under the International Policy Council, will develop policies for their organizations that reflect their countries' cultures and laws. Recommended changes to the boards and management of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries in North America were also made, which will be formally announced at the international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2006.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES AND CHANGES OF ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Sadly, the day after the August 18 meeting that ratified these changes, the revelations of the misconduct of two senior campus ministers in Los Angeles came to light. Thus, as we were putting the finishing touches on this two and a half year process, we were thrown into an unprecedented crisis situation. As a result, a team of senior leaders comprising Steve Murrell, Russ Austin, Brett Fuller, Garry Senna and Sam Webb reviewed the situation in Los Angeles and made recommendations on changes to ensure such a situation would not repeat itself.
During the next reorganization meeting ending September 9, 2005, this team was officially commissioned to go to Los Angeles to perform the review and the final recommendations for the reorganization were discussed. After the review team presented its findings to a group ofleaders during a series of meetings in the week of October 3, 2005, several extra-local leaders have visited the Every Nation church in Palos Verdes on multiple occasions and have been meeting with local staff, church members and students to help begin implementing the recommended changes outlined in the review.
Understandably, the incidents in Los Angeles have put tremendous pressure on Phil Bonasso and his family and this situation in turn sped up his voluntary decision to step down from his role as the Senior Pastor of the Every Nation church in Palos Verdes, California, and to entrust this responsibility to Pastor Fred and Lisa Bradford.
In keeping with the previous restructuring recommendations, Phil also voluntarily resigned from the boards of directors of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. Phil and Karen have made the decision to relocate to Jacksonville, Florida, where they will be able to prepare for their next season oflife and ministry in roles that are being developed as part of the reorganization. While in Jacksonville, they will be attending Southpoint Community Church, which is led by Pastor Russ and Debbie Austin. As one of the co-founders of Every Nation Churches and Ministries, Phil has been a vital part of the establishment and growth of our organization. We ask you for your continued prayers for Phil and Karen as they move into a new season of ministry.
Concurrently, and in keeping with the process that was already in motion, we have also been making changes to the roles of the founders, to board membership and to corporate structure (some of which are pending until the Palm Springs meeting in January). We have also selected executive directors for Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries in North America and appointed an independent compensation committee to set salaries for those organizations. Many more positive changes are underway and will continue as part of this process.
LOOKING FORWARD
During the upcoming international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2006, the specific details of the reorganization and our plans moving forward will be presented to the international delegates invited to this event. In the meantime, with the difficult and public situations that we have been navigating as a leadership team, we felt it necessary to give this preliminary communique to help bring you up to speed and to request your prayers and patience as we continue with our restructuring.
We are aware that there are possibly questions you may have that are still unanswered. Nonetheless, since timely communication has been a weakness of our organization in the past, we trust this communique will be helpful to you and look forward to sharing with you, in the near future, more of the positive changes going on and the work that is underway to prepare Every Nation Churches and Ministries for years of fruitful ministry in the service of Christ.
Again, thank you for your prayers.
1 See Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations by John Carver for an in-depth discussion of Policy Governance® or CarverGuide, Basic Principles of Policy Governance (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) by the same author for a primer on the topic.
It's a great privilege to co-labor with you to reach every nation in our generation. As our movement continues to grow, a major priority is to improve our communication with leaders like you. We want to make sure that you have accurate and timely information to assist you in the valuable role you play in this ministry.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this communication is to respond to several recent events and related concerns regarding our movement that have come to the attention of the leadership of Every Nation Churches and Ministries. Staff, church members, ministry partners, students and/or parents may have heard unsettling allegations concerning the ministry and we want to ensure that you are fully apprised so that you will be able to effectively answer any questions that may arise in your sphere of influence.
In particular, there have been a number of questions about the departures of two of our campus ministers in Los Angeles for unbiblical conduct, and the changes in Phil Bonasso's role in the LA local church and with Every Nation. To address these issues, it's first necessary to give you the background on the journey the founders and senior management of Every Nation have been taking for the past two and a half years to fundamentally restructure and improve our worldwide ministry.
BACKGROUND
During a series of special meetings held at the end of April 2003, Rice Broocks, Steve Murrell, Phil Bonasso, Jim Laffoon, Bert Thomson and Mark Foster met to discuss a number of management concerns and "growing pains" that Morning Star International was beginning to experience. Our very rapid and organic growth was starting to reveal weaknesses in the organization that needed to be addressed if we were to continue to grow and fulfill our God-given mandate in the Great Commission. On May 1, 2003, at the close of those discussions, the Board of Directors of Morning Star International officially commissioned Phil Bonasso and Mark Foster to develop a proposal to comprehensively restructure and reorganize Morning Star International.
At the ensuing international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2004, a plan was presented to the Board of Morning Star International in response to their previous directive. The following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the proposal:
Since its inception in 1994, Morning Star International (MS!) has rapidly grown from a small group of churches with campus outreaches to a worldwide family of thriving churches and specialized ministries. Guided by a clear set of core values and strong relationships, its founders have led the movement effectively for a decade through the many challenges a pioneering ministry must overcome.
Not only does MSI have established, functional core values, but also through the 2010 Initiative it has a clear roadmap to the fulfillment of its mission. The ministry is financially viable and has tremendous training resources and an effective engine for missions - the MPD program - that has been a success from its inception.
Today we stand at the threshold of another decade with an entirely different set of challenges. MSI's capability to be effective has been well established. The question now is how long can we continue to be effective given our present structure? That is, how can we best manage and stimulate growth and maintain our effectiveness for the long-term? To answer these questions, we must start to address the complementing issue of efficiency. Ultimately, both our long-term effectiveness and efficiency will be a function of how well we meet the challenge of becoming efficient in the years directly ahead.
Inefficiency has largely arisen from the ad hoc nature of the growth of MSI, which is typical of most startup organizations. Corporations, ministries and programs have arisen as a response to a variety of needs, to capitalize on opportunities, or as individual visions and burdens, but often without clear coordination, communication or strategic planning. Multiple mergers and adoptions have brought unique opportunities and challenges into the movement.
As a result, redundancies, gaps, and a lack of systematic integration of our corporate ministries and their identities and functions exist today. This produces confusion both internally and externally and makes the organization difficult to manage.
Two primary, interrelated areas will have long-term ramifications if not addressed presently. By applying MSI's strong and visionary leadership to these two areas, MSI can succeed in creating the systems and structures needed to manage and govern its anticipated growth in the generations to come. These are: (1) the organizational structure and systematic function of the movement and (2) the corresponding identity of the ministry in the marketplace.
As we look to the future, addressing these issues at this juncture is critical. The opportunity to capitalize on a decade of experience and optimize the inefficient areas in the organization before the next wave of growth present to us a God-given moment to establish patterns and foundations that will ensure success for the subsequent generations. Weare well on our way to the place where we are on the top of our game. Our challenge is to get there as intelligently and as quickly as possible and stay there.
The recommendations outlined in the proposal were:
1. To reorganize as two separate corporations: one to focus on serving the specific needs of churches, church leaders and members and the other to focus on serving the unique needs of evangelistic outreaches, training, missions and missionary staff.
2. To redefine the management roles of the founders and the executive management of these two new organizations in order to more effectively lead the ministry in the years ahead and to redefine and expand the boards and governance structures of the movement.
3. To rename the organization under the banner of Every Nation as Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. The purpose for this name change was three- fold:
a. To develop a strong and recognized name that embodies the spirit and mission of our movement.
b. To make it very clear which churches and ministries are part of the overall organization. (Through the years a plethora of names, ministries and organizations sprang up under the umbrella of the movement, and it was not clear to our internal membership, let alone the general public, that they were related.)
c. To remove the confusion between our ministry and another of a similar name with which Morning Star International was regularly confused.
4. To implement full financial disclosure of all of our missions, ministry and fundraising efforts and to ultimately receive accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
5. To improve and correct the management practices and processes that the organization had outgrown as a multinational entity.
RECENT ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
From that point forward, the founders together with management have not only been implementing that plan, but also improving and refining it. The primary challenge to us in this process has been that we have had to simultaneously manage this rapidly-growing movement while trying to restructure it at the same time. Consequently, a number of well-respected professionals from the Christian management community have been hired to assist us.
A) Financial Management and Compensation
On February 19, 2004, Phil Bonasso retained the services of Greg Capin and his firm, Capin Crouse LLP, an established and respected nonprofit accounting firm, to perform a comprehensive Compliance Audit of the entire organization. The charter was for Capin Crouse to determine any practices or weaknesses in our board, financial, compensation and/or management practices that needed to change so that our ministry would be fully compliant with IRS guidelines, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), generally accepted governance and management principles and to ultimately conform to the ECF A' s guidelines.
Management was instructed to communicate on the most detailed level with Capin Crouse concerning all of our operations and in particular to raise any areas of concern or weakness that they identified. The report was completed in September 30, 2004, which highlighted the following general issues that are typical for any rapidly-growing nonprofit organization like ours:
1. The fast growth of the organization had significantly outpaced the growth of the infrastructure and management systems and processes.
2. The organization had outgrown a startup "Founder Board," and this board needed to be expanded to include independent (uncompensated) individuals and to improve the governance process, including an independent compensation committee to set executive salaries.
3. More skilled and experienced staff were needed in the finance and accounting and human resources areas in order to manage the growing complexity of the organization and to maintain and develop internal controls in accordance with IRS guidelines and GAAP.
4. The organization also needed to improve the strategic planning and related budgeting processes for ministry operations.
5. The fragmented operations caused by staff being employees of multiple legal entities (e.g.
Every Nation Churches and various local churches near the offices) needed attention.
6. The ministry required an essential move towards greater accountability with its constituents and donors.
7. Finally, the intellectual property represented in the diverse training materials developed by
various authors within the organization had to be properly documented and managed.
As a result of the recommendations of that plan, Rick Myers, the CEO of Solomon Financial and a member of the Every Nation church in Phoenix, Arizona, was hired to be the CFO of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. His primary job was to help implement all the recommendations in the Capin Crouse report and to take over the financial operations of the two corporations. Jiji Concepcion, a member of Every Nation in the Philippines, was also hired as the Human Resources Director and has since been working to standardize all the compensation practices throughout the organization for both regular and executive staff.
To date, of the 82 recommendations in the report, 26 (32%) are complete, 35 (43%) are in process and 21 (25%) are incomplete or have not yet been started.
B) Communications and Name Change / Re-branding
In May 2004, the DeMoss Group was hired to help professionally re-brand the organization and to help us fix another significant weakness in the organization: inadequate internal and external communication processes.
In a series of meetings through the middle of 2004, a communications committee comprised of Steve Murrell, Lynn Nawata, Michael Swain, Bill Lloyd and Mark Foster, together with Mark DeMoss and members of his staff, discussed not only the renaming of the organization but also the growing communications needs and some of the negative criticisms that were coming from a small group of individuals on the Internet.
As mentioned, one of the weaknesses we recognized within our organization was in the area of communicating regularly about the work of our ministry. Up until that time, we had consciously chosen not to publicize the movement in order to not appear as self-promoting. However, we came to realize that we had inadvertently created a scenario wherein a small group of vocal critics on the Internet were erroneously framing who we are as a movement, what we are doing and our motives for doing it. At that time, because only a small group of individuals was involved on a few blog sites, we determined that moving forward with a long-term communications strategy and the reorganization would ultimately clarify and address any legitimate concerns about the organization.
With the upcoming World Conference in the summer of 2004, it was decided that even though the reorganization was incomplete and was still being refined, there was not a better moment to announce the name change to the movement. In hindsight, it would have been better to announce the reorganization in a more formal fashion, although a number of senior leaders were aware that this process was on-going, and they were involved at various levels in the development of the plan. Nonetheless, at the 2004 World Conference in Los Angeles, the new name for the movement was announced.
The rest of the year was spent developing and implementing a transition plan for the ministry partners and staff with respect to the name change and the restructuring of the ministry. At the end of 2004, the corporation Morning Star International, Inc. was officially renamed Every Nation Churches, Inc. At the same time, Victory Campus Ministries, Inc. was renamed Every Nation Ministries, Inc. and all missionary staff were moved into the Every Nation Ministries corporation.
C) Structural Reorganization
Although we were making significant internal changes, the final aspects of the reorganization were yet to be ratified particularly in the area of governance, the boards for these organizations and the future roles of the founders in the new organizational structure. In order to complete the project, alan Hendrix, CEO of Leadership Resource Group and the founding president of ECF A, was hired as an organizational consultant in December of 2004.
In January 2005, Steve Murrell, Phil Bonasso and Mark Foster met with Mr. Hendrix to review the progress to date, to discuss the necessary final changes to the structures of the new corporations and to learn about a nonprofit governance model known as Policy Governance®. Recommendations from this meeting were discussed with Rice Broocks at the January 2005 international leadership summit and, due to Steve Murrell's limited remaining time in the U.S. before returning to the Philippines, it was decided to hold a series of meetings during the summer of 2005 to finalize the reorganization and the overall restructuring of the movement.
During this period, a number of voices of concern within the movement were raised. These had to do with the departure of Paul Daniel and Greg Ball and the lack of clear communication with respect to them, frustration with the bottlenecking that was occurring in various areas of the ministry around the founders and their accessibility, concern over financial accountability and transparency, compensation practices and a number of other issues, all of which had already been previously recognized internally as weaknesses and were already being addressed in the restructuring.
In June 2005, the first of a series of summer reorganization meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, were held. During those discussions, our organizational consultant, alan Hendrix, educated the founders and a small group of senior managers on how good governance (and particularly Policy Governance® as a governance model1) was a critical component to the ultimate success of the reorganization and how it would improve all aspects of operations and management in the restructured entity.
During the following meetings held throughout the summer, various senior leaders were also brought into the discussions. Discussions topics included corporate structure, executive management, founders' roles and spiritual oversight structures for the movement, and initial policies (values and perspectives) were developed for the newly formed International Policy Council of Every Nation (see the following section for details). By the meeting during the week of August 15, 95% of the reorganization had been ratified with only a few items still in discussion. Nonetheless, the main components of the reorganization had been settled as described in the next section.
D) Overview of the Proposed New Structures
On the following page, Figure 1 diagrams the new spiritual oversight structure for the movement that resulted from the summer meetings. The International Policy Council's main charter is to communicate, in written form, the values and perspectives of this movement so that staff worldwide clearly understands them and as a result is empowered to minister in accordance with them.
Seven initial global regions were designated: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Middle East & India and the Pacific Islands. Each will contain teams of regional directors whose primary role will be to facilitate healthy local churches and ministry initiatives in those regions. The International Ministry Council is comprised of representatives from the seven regions and a number of "at-large" members whose role is to facilitate healthy local churches and ministry initiatives on an international level and to keep a pulse on the worldwide ministry. This body is replacing the former International Apostolic Team, although at the time of writing, the exact roles of this council, the regional team members and the appointment processes were still being finalized.
Also on the following page, Figure 2 diagrams the global corporate organizational structure that was finalized during the meetings. As a corporate model, Every Nation corporate entities will have local boards of directors who, under the International Policy Council, will develop policies for their organizations that reflect their countries' cultures and laws. Recommended changes to the boards and management of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries in North America were also made, which will be formally announced at the international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2006.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES AND CHANGES OF ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Sadly, the day after the August 18 meeting that ratified these changes, the revelations of the misconduct of two senior campus ministers in Los Angeles came to light. Thus, as we were putting the finishing touches on this two and a half year process, we were thrown into an unprecedented crisis situation. As a result, a team of senior leaders comprising Steve Murrell, Russ Austin, Brett Fuller, Garry Senna and Sam Webb reviewed the situation in Los Angeles and made recommendations on changes to ensure such a situation would not repeat itself.
During the next reorganization meeting ending September 9, 2005, this team was officially commissioned to go to Los Angeles to perform the review and the final recommendations for the reorganization were discussed. After the review team presented its findings to a group ofleaders during a series of meetings in the week of October 3, 2005, several extra-local leaders have visited the Every Nation church in Palos Verdes on multiple occasions and have been meeting with local staff, church members and students to help begin implementing the recommended changes outlined in the review.
Understandably, the incidents in Los Angeles have put tremendous pressure on Phil Bonasso and his family and this situation in turn sped up his voluntary decision to step down from his role as the Senior Pastor of the Every Nation church in Palos Verdes, California, and to entrust this responsibility to Pastor Fred and Lisa Bradford.
In keeping with the previous restructuring recommendations, Phil also voluntarily resigned from the boards of directors of Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries. Phil and Karen have made the decision to relocate to Jacksonville, Florida, where they will be able to prepare for their next season oflife and ministry in roles that are being developed as part of the reorganization. While in Jacksonville, they will be attending Southpoint Community Church, which is led by Pastor Russ and Debbie Austin. As one of the co-founders of Every Nation Churches and Ministries, Phil has been a vital part of the establishment and growth of our organization. We ask you for your continued prayers for Phil and Karen as they move into a new season of ministry.
Concurrently, and in keeping with the process that was already in motion, we have also been making changes to the roles of the founders, to board membership and to corporate structure (some of which are pending until the Palm Springs meeting in January). We have also selected executive directors for Every Nation Churches and Every Nation Ministries in North America and appointed an independent compensation committee to set salaries for those organizations. Many more positive changes are underway and will continue as part of this process.
LOOKING FORWARD
During the upcoming international leadership summit in Palm Springs in January 2006, the specific details of the reorganization and our plans moving forward will be presented to the international delegates invited to this event. In the meantime, with the difficult and public situations that we have been navigating as a leadership team, we felt it necessary to give this preliminary communique to help bring you up to speed and to request your prayers and patience as we continue with our restructuring.
We are aware that there are possibly questions you may have that are still unanswered. Nonetheless, since timely communication has been a weakness of our organization in the past, we trust this communique will be helpful to you and look forward to sharing with you, in the near future, more of the positive changes going on and the work that is underway to prepare Every Nation Churches and Ministries for years of fruitful ministry in the service of Christ.
Again, thank you for your prayers.
1 See Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations by John Carver for an in-depth discussion of Policy Governance® or CarverGuide, Basic Principles of Policy Governance (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) by the same author for a primer on the topic.